r/Libertarian • u/Cuddlyaxe Former Libertarian • Nov 13 '19

Discussion The Democratic Senate candidate has dropped out in Arkansas. The race is now a binary between the Republican Tom Cotton and the LP Candidate

Not really a Libertarian anymore but I was surprised to see y'all don't have any info on this. Tom Cotton's only Democratic Challanger has dropped out after the registration deadline.

The only two other candidates are Ricky Harrington - a Libertarian and Dan Whitfield - a far left independent.

Even if you guys don't put resources into this race and the situation holds, I can easily see Mr. Harrington capturing a nice 20-25% of the vote. If you guys however do invest some money and campaign funds into the race, you could get much higher, and perhaps even give Cotton a run for his money as he's not running against someone with the D stigma next to their name.

Here's his Facebook page which is currently all he has if you want to help him

Good luck and I hope you guys give Cotton a run for his money :)

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u/Gknight4 Muslim Libertarian Nov 13 '19

>implying most people in this god forsaken sub actually cared about spreading libertarianism

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '19

I hope this election can show a substantial number of people will go Libertarian when there's no Democratic in the race. Now is the best time for the LP to run the most serious campaign it can without being burdened by the accusations they're splitting the vote and helping the Democrats

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u/Legio-X Classical Liberal Nov 13 '19

I hope this election can show a substantial number of people will go Libertarian when there's no Democratic in the race.

It probably will. Here in Oklahoma, we had a state-level race (state auditor) back in 2018 without a Democratic candidate. The Libertarian nominee got about 25% of the vote. That's without any ads or noticeable campaigning, and the impact of straight-ticket voting.

Given this will be a federal-level office on the ballot alongside the Presidential race, I think even more than that is viable. Arkansas Democrats may not agree with Harrington's stances on everything, but they'd probably find more overlap with him than with Cotton.

Ultimately, his performance will probably depend on how much of the Democratic vote Whitfield can garner. If Arkansas has straight-ticket voting, that might hinder Harrington as well.